Card-file.



No. 650,352. Patented May 22, I900.

A. Dom.

CARD Fl (Application filed Sap 1899.)

(Mo llodel.)

Aw ATTORNEY z n4: NORRIS mm: co.) mvaumu, wuul UNITED STATES PATENTOFFICE.

AL JXANDER DOM, OF HARTWELL, OI-I-IO, ASSIGNOR TO THE GLOBE WERNICKECOMPANY, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

CARD-FlLE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent 1%. 650,352, dated May 22,1960. Application filed September 11, 1899. Serial No. 730,051. (Nomodel.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALEXANDER DOM, a citizen of the United States,residing at Hartwell, in the countyof Hamilton and State of Ohio, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Card-Files, of which thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being hadto the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

My invention relates to files for index-cards for use in offices,libraries, and other places where cards are used for purposes ofindexing or reference; and it has for its object the improvedconstruction of such files whereby their ease of manipulation, security,and efficiency are increased.

The novelty of my invention will be hereinafter set forth, andspecifically pointed out in the claim.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents a plan view of acard-file embody ing my invention. Fig. 2 is a sectional side elevationof the operating mechanism. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the parts shown inFig. 2. Fig. at is a detail view, looking to the front, of part of theoperating mechanism. Fig. 5 is a sectional plan view of part of the operating mechanism.

The same letters of reference are used to indicate identical parts inall the figures.

In its preferred form of construction the file is a drawer, of which aseries are usually employed and contained in a suitable case or cabinet.The drawer may have an inte-. rior width just sufficient for a singlerow of cards, which stand on end transversely of the drawer, or it maybe wide enough to contain several card-compartments side by side extending from the front to the rear of the drawer.

. In the drawings, A represents the bottom of the drawer, with sidewalls B, front wall O, and rear wall D. Through the middle of eachcard-compartment, near its bottom, extend a pair of filing-rods E,suitably pivoted to the ends of a plate F, Fig. 1, horizontally andcentrally pivoted in a recess in the rear wall D and in the front end ofthe drawer to a horizontal segmental gear G, Figs. 2 and 3,

pivoted, as at a, to a plate H, mounted on the bottom of thecard-compartment.

Meshing with the segmental gear G is a ver tical segmental gear I,mounted, as shown in Fig; 5, on a screw L, which passes through the gearI, through a sleeve K, and is screwed 5 5 into the operating knob orhandle J. The sleeve K is suitably mounted in the front wall 0. Theobject of this construction is to pro vide an operating-stem which byvarying the length of the sleeve K and the screw L may 66 be made to fitany thickness of front wall. This sleeve is of practically the samelength as the thickness of the front wall O and serves to keep theoperating-knob J and the seg mental gear I from binding against thefront wall 0.

A shield 12 is provided to keep the cards away from the operatingmechanism. A suitable follower o is provided for keeping the cardstogether at the forward end of the 70 drawer and in an upright position.

The cards to be filed are rectangular, with a T-shaped slot throughtheir lower edge near the middle, as is customary in this class ofcard-files, so that when the rods E are brought together in the positionshown in Fig. 1 the cards may be readily slipped over the rods, and thenupon turning the button J the rods are spread apart in the horizontalpart of the T-shaped slots to lock the cards in place.

The operation of the device is as follows: When it is desired to removeany card or cards from the drawer, the knob J, Fig. 2, is turned,thereby turning the segmental gear I, which, meshing with, turns thesegmental gear G, thereby drawing together the locking and releasingrods E and releasing the cards, so that any or all may be removed andreferred to. When the cards are replaced in the drawer, the knob J isturned in the op 0 posite direction, thereby operating the gears I and Gand spreading the rods E to their locking position.

It will be observed that the rods E maintain at all times theirparallelism and when being brought together or spread apart they have alongitudinal as well as a lateral movement.

which the forward ends of the filing-rods are pivoted, a second verticalrack meshing with the first-named rack, an operating-stem secured tosaid vertical rack, and an operatingbutton on the exterior of the frontportion of the file for causing the oscillation of both racks-and thespreading apart or bringing together of the filing-rods, substantiallyas described ALEXANDER DOM. \Vitnesses OWEN N. KENNEY, C AU E PRooUNrAR.

